"Beautiful eye-candy with addictive gameplay! I approve."

After the very first Doshin on the 64DD and the sequel...which was very odd-looking....Comes Doshin the Giant.

Basically a better rehash of the first 64DD version made by Param, Doshin has found its way out of Japan and into Europe and other PAL territories. Unfortunately, even though Nintendo announced a release here in the good old U.S.A., I don't expect anything to happen. That is why I imported from Japan.

Gameplay: 9/10

You are a Giant, who helps out tribes of villagers on Barudo Island, a very small island off the Pacific coast.

There are 4 different tribes, depending on what color clothing they are wearing (Basically Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue.) All of them are too simple to do anything on their own, so they need your help to make them build a village. They have 5 kinds of requests, depending on what is on their mind.

-If a picture of a tree is above their heads, they need a tree by where they are standing. Go find a tree and send it their way.
-If a picture of an up arrow is above their heads, they want you to raise the earth they are standing by (Press A and move the Control stick up, or the easier way, pressing X.)
-If a picture of a down arrow is above their heads, they want you to lower the ground. (Press B to jump, or the easier way, pressing Y.)
-If a squiggly line is above their heads, that means something is obstructing their building site, such as a tree. Move it, but not too far, they need it for green energy.
-If a flower is above their heads, that means they need a flower for a monument they are building. You can get a flower by putting 7 trees together. If it withers and dies, that means there is another flower on the island. Press Z to call up the map for help.

Doshin has an alter ego, a hate giant, named Jashin. He is a bit faster than Doshin, and can hover in the air for a short time. He can also throw fire balls.

Doshin starts out more like a bigger sized version of the islanders. To make him grow, you must get the islanders to love you. When you do good things for them, they give you hearts. The hearts dance around Doshin for a short while, and fill up the gage in a Clockwise motion. If you do bad stuff to them, they give you skulls. The skulls also dance around Doshin, and enter the gage in a counter-clockwise motion.

Once the Islanders really love you, and their village has grown a lot, they start to build a monument. They ask you to bring them a flower, that'll aid the monument to turn into a regulation monument. Without the flower, the monument will look like an ugly brown mess when finished, and it wont count toward the 16 you need.

Graphics: 8/10

2 words. Eye candy. The graphics of the water is simply beautiful, and when you put the camera down in the water, it will actually look like you are under water, not just this blue abyss. Of course, the islanders look like flat pixels when far away, but that really shouldn't bother anyone. Occasionally, you see birds swooping down into the water to grab a fish.

But....the appearance of Doshin, having no clothes on...and the belly button....thing....makes me think that the team who made this game is cuckoo, no offense.

Music/Audio: 7/10

Heh....there actually isn't any real existing music, except the theme song, and the saw theme after the day is over. There are occasional tribal chants and such, but...nothing you can really hum to after you have turned off the game.

The birds chirping and the waves and the Animal sounds are a nice touch, though.

Replay Value: 8/10

Addicting, very addicting. Even though I don't know a lot of Japanese, I can get around in this game easily. I understand the concepts and stuff....But we weren't talking about me, were we? Okay, bottom line, addictive.

Buy/Import, or Rent (If you are in Europe reading this)? Actually, it depends.

If you live in America and love odd games like this, try shelling out 20 more bucks to find it in stock on the Internet. If you can find a European copy, hey, good for you. If you can only find a Japanese copy, it's okay, IGN has translations for the menus. If you are more into action games, try staying away (since you can't rent a copy, anyway) from this one.

If you live in Europe and you're reading this, and love odd games like this, go buy a copy. If you are more into action games, but not sure whether to buy it or not, give it a rent.

Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Music/Audio: 7/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Buy/Import, or Rent: Depends on whether you like odd games like this or not
Overall (not an average, if I averaged, it would come out to something lower, obviously): 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/03, Updated 06/12/03